Don’t bother dumping your remote control into the leftover cranberry sauce today if you can’t find Bengals vs. Chargers on your telly. Get in your car and drive more than 75 miles and your GPS may help you find it.

This thing is blacked out, the first NFL game to be blacked out this year.

As of Thursday, the blackout deadline, 5,300 tickets remained for the show. Far too many for the sponsors to pick up the tab this time, as they did in that Monday night game against Indianapolis.

Embarrassing? Well, kind of. But not completely unexpected. The Chargers are 5-6, and their chances of playing in January are good — if they’re vacationing in Cancun. The Bengals, despite leading the AFC North, remain the Bengals. As a draw, they’re stick figures.

So who’s to blame, the fans, or Bolts boss Dean Spanos?

The fans have every right to spend their money as they wish, and in that this is the holiday season, many folks have better ways to spend their dough than on bad seats.

If you know even a little Shakespeare, aye, there’s the rub.

The way I see it, the Chargers have a solid fan base of 60,000 or so willing to purchase tickets. And that’s what Qualcomm Stadium should hold, about 60,000, maybe a bit more, certainly not the 70,000 it’s cracked up to seat. Those 5,300 chairs remaining aren’t exactly on the 50-yard line.

The biggest problem is that the NFL’s blackout TV rule is antiquated and should be abolished. The League has made it incredibly attractive to stay home and watch games (which is why, one day, home viewers will pay to watch). They can’t lie about these sellouts forever. As it is, if you have the Red Zone channel, you probably will see a lot of the game anyway.

Spanos is a businessman and the business of pro football is business. It would be nice if he bought seats, but I can see why he won’t. You can’t go to Costco and walk out with 5,300 TVs. Next to broadcast rights, tickets are his second-biggest source of revenue.

But he can reduce stadium capacity to, say, 61,000, and if he did, blackouts would be doubtful. I’m sure he won’t do it, but that should be the deal.

If the Chargers ever get a new stadium, what will it hold? About 60,000. Why make that dump they’re playing in now carry 70,000?

Look, the NFL wants to look good with this sellout thing, but hardly every game has been sold out. When the Chargers played at Miami, the stadium looked as though a prep game was in progress. It’s a joke.

Blackouts should be banned. If not, Dean should put Qualcomm in the dryer and shrink it. …

Looking at the Chargers’ secondary on video this week, Cincinnati receiver A.J. Green probably drooled so much he had to change his shirt. …

When Philip Rivers is allowed to find his rhythm, there is no better quarterback in football. …